The Counterfeit Shyness Epidemic

A few UK newspapers ran with stories yesterday regarding future proposals in the DSM.

The updated DSM [The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders] is due in 2013 and those wacky white coated men have covered all bases when it comes to targeting children.

Not content with S.A.D. [Social Anxiety Disorder], the wannabe Gods have come up with O.D.D [Oppositional Defiant Disorder]

Let's just take a look at the acronyms used for each of these disorders. Sad and Odd.

According to the wisdom of these nutty professors, your child may have S.A.D. if he/she is quiet in the classroom, you know the kind of kid I'm talking about here, the one who chooses not to raise his/her hand and volunteer an answer. Yup, drug them.

On the other end of the scale we have O.D.D. These are the children, who unlike the S.A.D. individuals, choose to do the opposite. They talk back to 'adults' and may oppose what they are being asked/told to do.

For those in between these two labels, don't fear, you won't feel left out. Early intervention of "mental disorders" means you too can have a label just like your friends. Just tick a series of boxes and your destiny will be planned for you by the white coated soothsayers. Your parents will be informed, "Dear Mr and Mrs Jones, although the mental health screening of your child showed no apparent mental disorder, we feel, by the answers given in the screening survey, that your child has the early signs of psychosis. This may become full blown within the next five years or so. We highly recommend that they be monitored by our team.

Sounds absurd doesn't it? Did deep and you will find that this is already happening.

I foresee future disorders being invented, just so those DSM shills can report back to the pharmaceutical companies with cap in hand, "We did what you asked of us massa, all bases covered massa."

Gone are the days where children can have an imagination, if they are caught daydreaming in class, label them then drug them. If they answer a teacher back, label them and drug them. If they are seen to be mourning the loss of a parent, brother, sister, grandparent or friend, label them and drug them. Yup, another gem from the proposed DSM is "Depressive disorder". If a child mourns the loss of any of the above for longer than 6 months, label them and drug them.

Call me an old cynic if you want but isn't this push to drug children a reflection on decisions made by medicine regulators regarding SSRi's like Seroxat, Cipramil etc?

A while ago, the UK regulator, MHRA, made recommendations that antidepressants like Seroxat should not be given to children. That put a huge dent in the coffers for the pharmaceutical industry. Only way around this would seemingly be to invent a few more disorders. Hey Presto!... and the licence to print money starts all over again.

Don't expect the MHRA to intervene with the latest in the line of new mental disorders. They are spineless and, after all, wholly funded by the pharmaceutical industry. Give it about 10 years and they may send out warning letters to doctors regarding the medication used to treat children who are sad, mourning or just a little bit boisterous. They allow the pharmaceutical industry to make wads of cash before intervening, you see. Everyone, except your child, is a winner.

When the average person reads of the good deeds done by the pharmaceutical industry such as various donations to war-torn countries or vaccines to the poorer countries, it makes us sleep better at night, knowing that big pharma is really looking out for us. That is the image they like to portray, it's a confidence trick, one which they are past masters at.

Delve a little deeper and you may just find a more sinister reason behind the pharmaceutical industries apparent generosity.

As a child growing up I was always out playing games. I fear Hopscotch will now have rules attached. If your child lands on a crack in the pavement then they may just have a mental disorder... because those men in white coats want them to.

More coverage HERE and HERE




Fid 


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Medicate the shy?

Article in the Daily Mail is highlighting whether or not The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence [N.I.C.E] should recommend drugs for use in shy people.

I cannot believe they are even considering this. Of course "shyness" has been re-labelled as...wait for it... "social anxiety disorder" [S.A.D.] - It's basically how GlaxoSmithKline used to promote Seroxat [Paxil in the US].

In and around 1999 posters were popping up all over the United States, many were pasted onto bus shelters and street corners. The poster was of a young man staring into a cup of coffee, looking despondent. Opposite him were a seemingly happy couple. The tagline for the poster read: "Imagine being allergic to people"

The poster carried the name of a website to visit - aptly named, allergictopeople.com.

The site is no longer up but the Wayback machine offers the chance to view it.

The poster appears on the website with the text:

You know what it's like to be allergic to cats, or dust, or pollen. You sneeze, you itch, you're physically ill. Now, imagine that you felt allergic to people. You blush, sweat, shake — even find it hard to breathe. That's what social anxiety disorder feels like. Over ten million Americans suffer from social anxiety disorder, an excessive, persistent, disabling fear of embarrassment or humiliation in social, work, or performance situations.

The good news is that this disorder is treatable. People can overcome social anxiety disorder. So if you feel like you're "allergic to people," talk to your doctor or other health professional.

For a free informative brochure about Social Anxiety Disorder, call 1-800-934-6276.

More information on Social Anxiety Disorder is available from the following sources:

The Sources are:

Freedom From Fear

Anxiety Disorders Association of America

American Psychiatric Association

What the website does not tell you is where the funding came from for the apparent allergy to people 'illness.'

SmithKline Beecham

Their antidepressant, Paxil [Seroxat] had just recently been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of debilitating shyness, formally known as social anxiety disorder.

You would have to be from the planet Zog not to see the motive behind SmithKline's financial backing of the "Imagine being allergic to people" campaign.

At the time SmithKline insisted that helping the afflicted, not boosting sales, is the goal of the poster blitz. "We find that less than 5 percent of patients are really treated today," says Barry Brand, product director for Paxil. "There's tremendous need out there." The company, he adds, is adamant about deterring frivolous use. "We don't want this to be a pill that you take for shyness," continues Brand. "We don't want you to think, 'Oh, I'll take a Paxil and I'll feel good.' "


For N.I.C.E. to be considering whether or not "shyness" is an actual mental disorder leaves me speechless. It's an emotion, not disabling just an emotion that most of us have felt at some point in our lives. We wasn't born performers, we wasn't meant to speak publicly in front of people - circumstances put us in these situations - situations that we have, for millions of years, dealt with. We don't need a pill for that. Shyness is as much as a mental disorder as someone's love for Marmite on toast!

When I was a kid in school many of my school lessons were, I assume, lessons in life, lessons to mingle with others. "Fiddaman, please read chapter three for the class" - I didn't like doing it but it taught me - it gave me confidence to speak in front of others. I was no different to any of my class-mates. Sure, there were those who went the colour crimson when asked to speak...or read text from a book...but they did it without the need of pharmaceutical drugs.

For N.I.C.E. to contemplate over this issue is absurd. Shyness doesn't warrant a regime of medication nor does it warrant the possibility of "shy people" becoming addicted to medication. There's your benefit v risk ratio. Be shy, work through it or become addicted to prescription medication.

If shyness didn't exist then I bet my left nut N.I.C.E. would be contemplating whether or not 'over-confidence' was a mental disorder...and I bet the pharmaceutical industry would have already promoted a drug to 'fix' that problem.

Unbefookinleiveable!


Fid

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GSK Target Teenagers?

GSK Target Teenagers?

How I think GSK's online Social Anxiety Disorder [SAD] Test targets teenagers.

Let's go through GSK's SAD Test [Remember the SAD Test is online, the website has pictures of Paxil plastered all over it]


1. Are you afraid of people in authority. "Adolescents are extremely reluctant to confide in adults or authority figures. Many teens fear their concerns about relationships will be ignored, belittled, or ridiculed because adults tend to underestimate the intensity of adolescent relationships." 1

2. Are you bothered by blushing in front of people. "Statistically, teenagers blush more often than adults." 2

3. Parties and social events scare you. "By labeling shyness and other human traits as mental conditions with a biological cause, the doors were opened wide to a pharmaceutical industry ready to provide a pill for every alleged chemical imbalance or biological problem." 3

4. Do you avoid talking to people you don't know. See 3

5. Being criticized scares you a lot. "The better teenagers feel about themselves, the higher their self-esteem and ability to cope with these temporary problems." 4

6. Fear of embarrassment causes you to avoid doing things or speaking to people. See 3

7. Sweating in front of people causes you distress. "Research shows that 48 percent of teens sometimes think that their sweating is a problem." 5

8. You avoid going to parties. See 3

9. You avoid activities in which you are the center of attention. See 3

10. Talking to strangers scares you. See 3

11.You avoid having to give speeches. See 3

12. You would do anything to avoid being criticized. See 4

13. Heart palpitations bother you when you are around people. "Fear is a habit, and it is developed within you just as other habits are." 6

14. You are afraid of doing things when people might be watching. See 6

15. Being embarrassed or looking foolish are among your worst fears. See 6

16. You avoid speaking to anyone in authority. See 1

17. Trembling or shaking in front of others is distressing to you. See 6

This 'test' does nothing but play on human emotions and it plays on the mind of teenagers who are at an age where their bodies are changing. We have all been through it, we have all dealt with it in our own ways. Shyness is a natural human emotion. It does not need pills to cure it as it is not an illness.

The test is a brilliant marketing tool. Give a teenager a spot [acne] overnight and they wake in the morning, frantically searching for the spot cream, if they can't hide the spot, they may squeeze it until the pus shoots out onto the bathroom mirror, often making the spot look worse. It is something they don't want, something they wish to hide. Same goes for shyness. Nobody wants to be put into situations they don't want to be in. Even as adults we fret at night, tossing and turning in bed because we have that important interview in the morning, because the good looking girl/guy will be working alongside you and you just don't know what to say.

It's a human emotion that we were all born with. It rears its head when we are teenagers, when we think we know it all.

I'd go so far to say that if we didn't feel shyness then that would be some form of illness. Alas that is not profitable for pharmaceutical companies such as GlaxoSmithKline. There are far more shy people than there are people who are not shy.

And what exactly is shyness? Wikipedia defines it as: "In humans, shyness (also called diffidence) is a social psychology term used to describe the feeling of apprehension, lack of confidence, or awkwardness experienced when a person is in proximity to, approaching, or being approached by other people, especially in new situations or with unfamiliar people."

I'm guessing here but my money is on the fact that every single one of us have experienced feelings of apprehension, a lack of confidence, a feeling of awkwardness etc.

As we have grown older we have learned to deal with our fears. Cast your minds back to when you was a teenager experiencing the above. It was all new to us wasn't it?

It's part of life, a life, it seems, that Pharma want to take control of because it will make them a huge amount of money.

The online test carries the disclaimer "This site is intended for US residents only, 18 years and older." But it's plainly obvious, to me at least, that this test is aimed at teenagers who are experiencing life as it is, how it will always be.

Fid


1. Teenagers - http://www.yakimacounty.us/PA/DomVio/Teens.pdf

2. Why Do Some People Blush? - http://www.wisegeek.com/why-do-some-people-blush.htm

3. How shyness and other normal human traits became sickness - http://www.physorg.com/news111222013.html

4. Common teenage problems - http://www.bbc.co.uk/parenting/your_kids/teen_problems.shtml

5. Sweat Solutions - http://www.sweatsolutions.org/SweatSolutions/Article.asp?ArticleCode=60713936&EditionCode=88906227

6. Mastering Your Mind Power - Recognize How Fear Controls You - http://www.articlesbase.com/motivational-articles/mastering-your-mind-power-recognize-how-fear-controls-you-641973.html

For more reading on shyness read Christiphor Lane's 'Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness' or view his website here

Read the new book, The Evidence, However, Is Clear...The Seroxat Scandal

ORDER THE PAPERBACK
'THE EVIDENCE, HOWEVER, IS CLEAR...THE SEROXAT SCANDAL' By Bob Fiddaman
SIGNED COPIES HERE OR UNSIGNED FROM CHIPMUNKA PUBLISHING